Antisemitism in the UK

The oldest hatred that seemed to come from nowhere

I grew up in 1980s Birmingham. I remember the racism of the time. It was a casual racism. It was also an institutional racism, in the proper sense of the word. The immigration issue was, unlike now, very much discussed in terms of race. And the police really did operate along racial lines in its policing of the inner city riots of the time. But a lot has changed since then. While - despite what you might hear to the contrary - most people’s ‘lived experience’ is that the old racism has faded over the decades; we are, nevertheless, now witnessing the re-emergence of antisemitism.

I say re-emergence, but speaking personally I honestly don’t ever remember it being a thing. Despite all the other quite blatant and openly expressed racism against black people and Asian people, antisemitism seemed something of a museum piece for my generation at least. It was what happened before and during the War. We only knew it, decades later, through what we heard and (most shockingly) saw on TV about the Holocaust. If we were taught it, we might have known, as Tanya Gold writes, ‘much of the interwar aristocracy did not like Jews’; and going back a little further, Edward I, who expelled the Jews from England (see pic above) was evidently not a fan either.

I suppose it must be true, as Gold suggests, that we have absorbed Jewish culture. It is a part of us. And yet, some whose parents were perhaps themselves once subject to vile and even violent discrimination; or who are themselves recent arrivals, are today visiting the same treatment on another, much smaller, minority. On a community they regard as somehow alien. It is an uncomfortable truth, as Rod Liddle argues, that an unwise immigration policy, and a lack of integration has inevitably brought with it deep discriminatory attitudes towards Jews that we have yet to grapple with.

But this is also a deeply domestic problem, with young people apparently lacking an understanding of the horrors of that time, and even a sympathy for today’s imperilled Jews. As Mary Wakefield puts it: ‘Somehow the idea of Nazis as the example of ultimate evil has lost its hold’. But, while the rise of the ‘Voodoo right’ is an increasing concern; it is the sympathies of the ‘progressives’ - those who tell us they are on the ‘right side of history’ - that I personally find the most disturbing of all. Their willingness to walk alongside apologists for pogroms, or to not notice the age-old Jew-hating tropes, is especially worrying. They really should know better.

As Dolan Cummings argues, while for most of us Israel v Hamas is a bloody war sparked by an atrocity; for ‘pro-Palestine’ allies in the West, it is a way of demonstrating that ‘cosmopolitan morality demands that, in any given conflict, we take the side of those who are least like us.’ The Jews, he concludes, ‘have the misfortune of being a people attached to a particular but very fluid prejudice, the idea that the world’s problems can be blamed on them.’ And so, around the world (wherever their mortal enemies and their apologists reside), they find themselves attacked - and those attacks justified at worst, ignored or downplayed at best.

Do you remember Amsterdam? It was just six months ago that a ‘Jew hunt’ took place in the heart of Europe. Like so much else involving these inconvenient victims, it has been swiftly forgotten. This particular obscene attack took place following a Europa League football match featuring Maccabi Tel Aviv. Their supporters were viciously attacked and Israel promptly, and shamefully for the game’s hosts, sent planes to rescue its citizens. It was described as something out of ‘Europe’s darkest history’ taking place, as it did, on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht. King Willem-Alexander reflected on how his country had ‘failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War Two, and last night we failed again’.

As Zoe Strimpel explains, in a piece on the ‘genteel antisemitism’ of children’s author Roald Dahl, ‘Israel functions as an irresistible magnet and obsession for anti-Semites’. In the US, and continuing the theme of Nazi revivalism, Kanye West’s latest provocation, a song called ‘Heil Hitler’ released on VE day was subsequently removed from streaming services. There was also the firebombing of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home on account of his support for Israel, and his being a Jew. And the defacing of Israeli actress Gal Gadot’s star in Hollywood, and her harassment in the UK where while shooting a film, again because she is an Israeli Jew.

Also in the UK, Gary Lineker - dubbed the ‘Kanye West of Soccer’ by commentator Jake Wallis Simons - went too far even for his BBC employers with a career-ending retweet of an obviously anti-semitic ‘pro-Palestine’ video. This was not long after defending a withdrawn BBC documentary exposed as Hamas propaganda. Then there was, during Passover, the no doubt charming and well-meaning, activists who targeted the Jewish community of the lovely Essex seaside town where I once lived, Westcliff-on-Sea.

Meanwhile, pensioner Julian Foulkes was arrested by six officers from Kent Police, ‘armed with batons and pepper spray’. This followed a filmed search of his home and was to lead to an eight hour interrogation at the station. His crime? To respond to a ‘pro-Palestine’ activist’s threat, on X, to sue Suella Braverman over her use of the term ‘hate marches’. He suggested, like the airport in Dagehstan, Russia, Heathrow could be the scene of a hate-filled mob forcing their way onto the runway tarmac intent on hunting down disembarking Jews. Whether you agree with him or not, it was fair comment and no business of the police.

He received a caution. And then an apology.

There have been some vile attacks and some hateful sloganeering. But it is institutions like the BBC and the police - confused by, or even implicated in anti-semitic sentiments as Jewish BBC employees have suggested - that are almost more concerning. They either don’t see it or don’t care. One member of staff has spoken about the ‘normalisation’ of Jew hatred inside the BBC. Another, referring to Lineker, has spoken of the corporation’s ‘endless willingness to overlook his apparent anti-Semitism dressed as Palestinian advocacy’. For these apparently ‘woke’ institutions, there is a blindness to the moral rot of institutional Jew hatred.

To be fair to London’s Metropolitan Police, following the fatal shooting of a young couple (both Israeli embassy staff and due to be engaged) outside the Jewish Museum in Washington DC; this effort to reassure Jewish Londoners was a welcome acknowledgement of the problem:

Since Oct 7 2023 we have seen a concerning increase in anti-Semitic hate crime, as well as the ever-present threat from extremism or terrorism. Officers have been working closely with community members and key partners … to provide advice, reassurance and a visible presence particularly in those areas with larger Jewish populations or in the vicinity of relevant venues.

While the ongoing Kanye West and Gary Lineker sagas seem trifling when Jews are physically threatened or even murdered simply for being Jews, there are important principles at stake here too. Calls for the criminalisation or cancellation of their like are unhelpful. Poisonous sentiments - however conscious they may be - amplified by overpaid and self-important footy commentators, or hatefully disposed and mentally unstable rappers, can all too easily become apologies for their violent expression by fringe elements. Still, the police should be protecting the Jewish community from these attacks, not shutting up people for the things they say - no matter how offensive.

We need to be able to have an open debate about this issue, and be honest with ourselves and each other about what is really going on here. The suspected gunman in that shocking double murder shouted ‘free, free Palestine!’ as he was lead away. While it’s no doubt possible to hold such views and not hate Jews, this is not an isolated incident. There can be no hiding from the reality of the ugly return of the oldest hatred - especially in this contemporary ‘progressive’ form. No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, now is the time to challenge antisemitism in all its guises, and to show solidarity with our Jewish friends and neighbours.

Image: Expulsion of the Jews